PIFC: Chris Óg Jones on song as Iveleary breeze past Ilen Rovers
Iveleary's Chris Óg Jones in action against Ilen Rovers during the McCarthy Insurance Group PIFC at Dunmanway. Picture: Eddie O'Hare
A comfortable win for Iveleary as they easily dispatched Ilen Rovers in the McCarthy Insurance Group PIFC clash at Sam Maguire Park in Dunmanway on Sunday evening.
The Muskerry side have reached the latter stages of this championship in recent years and on this evidence, they have all the abilities to reach that stage again.
It was a tough evening for Ilen Rovers in this opening Group 1 encounter. The Baltimore-based side suffered demotion from the SAFC last year and would have targeted a winning start in this one but they ultimately came up against a much better side.
Cork senior footballer Chris Óg Jones proved a thorn in Ilen Rovers’ defence as he ended up with 2-8 (0-7 f, 1-0 pen). He did pick up a second yellow card late on but the game was wrapped up at that stage. It was far from a one-man show in what was a strong team performance from Barry Oldham’s charges.
In front of a sparse crowd, it was Iveleary who did all the pressing as they hit the front after a minute through a Chris Óg Jones free but Ilen Rovers drew level when Micheál Sheehy bisected the posts.
Chris Óg Jones was causing the Ilen Rovers defence untold problems and he had a goal opportunity after five minutes but his piledriver hit the crossbar and the ball went over the bar. The Muskerry side tacked on another point courtesy of Ian Jones before Ilen Rovers were reduced to 14 players for 10 minutes when Kevin O’Driscoll picked up a black card after nine minutes.
Iveleary took firm control after just 11 minutes when Barry O’Leary finished to the net following a neat team move. Iveleary were in complete control as they rattled off 1-1 in two minutes. Who else but Chris Óg Jones with the scores, the green flag coming from the penalty spot after 14 minutes, 2-4 to 0-1.
Ilen Rovers were struggling to create anything of note but they did get a point from Peadar O’Driscoll, which was probably the score of the game. Ilen Rovers were now back to their full complement of players but the one-way traffic showed no signs of abating. In the final 10 minutes of the half, the Inchigeela outfit landed three unanswered points as they had a 2-7 to 0-2 half-time advantage.
The one-sided contest continued in the second half as the winners scored two goals in a space of 30 seconds through Chris Óg Jones and Aaron O’Donovan, 4-7 to 0-2 after 34 minutes. In fairness to Ilen Rovers, they never wilted and kept batting away and kicked a nice point from Sheehy.
Another black card arrived after 43 minutes for Ilen Rovers when Adrian O’Driscoll was shown the sideline for 10 minutes. The Muskerry side would kick the next five points with Timmy Roberts’ effort the pick of those scores, 4-12 to 0-3 with 13 minutes remaining.
The game really petered out in the final 10 minutes. Chris Óg Jones pointed another one from a free before Sheehy, who impressed for Ilen Rovers, kicked his third point until the aforementioned Chris Óg Jones picked up a second yellow card after 53 minutes but it merely mattered.
Iveleary landed two of the last three white flags to run out easy winners.
Next up for the Muskerry side is Aghada in the second group outing while Ilen Rovers lock horns with Aghabullogue.
C Óg Jones 2-8 (0-7 f, 1-0 pen), A O’Donovan 1-1, B O’Leary 1-0, I Jones, L Kearney 0-2 each, B Cronin, T Roberts 0-1 each.
M Sheehy 0-3, P O’Driscoll, D MacEoin 0-1 each.
J Creedon; B Murphy, D O’Donovan, T Roberts; K Manning, D O’Riordan, K Jones; B O’Leary, C O’Leary; A O’Donovan, C Óg Jones, S O’Riordan; B Cronin, S Pickering, I Jones.
L Kearney for S Pickering (42).
E Hourihane; D Coakley, A O’Driscoll, T McCarthy; K O’Driscoll, B Collins, J Collins; P O’Driscoll, C O’Driscoll; C Harrington, D Hegarty, S O’Shea; D MacEoin, M Sheehy, A O’Sullivan.
S Minihane for T McCarthy (23), J Hickey for S O’Shea (h-t), C Dwyer for C Harrington (50).
John Enright (Glengarriff).
App?
